Reds suffer pre-season defeat to Napoli

Liverpool suffered a heavy 3-0 loss to Napoli seven days before their domestic campaign begins against Manchester City in the Community Shield.

Lorenzo Insigne was involved in three goals at Murrayfield as Liverpool made it four pre-season games without a win.

The striker curled in the opener before setting up Arkadiusz Milik with a fizzing, low cross after half an hour.

And the rebound from his shot fell kindly for Amin Younes to complete the scoring after the break.

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Alisson wonder-save puts Reds into Champions League knock-out stages

Perhaps it would be stretching the truth a little to say this victory for Liverpool be remembered among on the list of great European nights here. That, however, is only because the list is already so extensive and the jubilation at the final whistle told its own story. Liverpool had made it through and can be greatly encouraged by the way they handled a potentially treacherous night.

Jürgen Klopp’s team have lost all their three foreign excursions in Group C but they have made it through as runners-up courtesy of Mohamed Salah’s first-half winner on a night when Paris Saint-Germain’s victory against Red Star Belgrade meant the French champions also qualified.

Amid nerve-shredding drama, it needed a brilliant save from Alisson, the Liverpool goalkeeper, to keep out the substitute Arkadiusz Milik in stoppage time but that was a rare opportunity for Napoli and, on the balance of play, it would have been hugely unjust if the home side were denied so late.

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Keita cleared to play against Man City after back injury

Naby Keïta returned to Liverpool by private jet from Naples on Thursday having had tests that confirmed he did not sustain spinal damage in the Champions League defeat by Napoli.

The midfielder was found to have had a back trauma following scans at the Cardarelli hospital in Naples. The £52.75m signing was carried off in distress 19 minutes into the 1-0 defeat at Stadio San Paolo on Wednesday after a collision with José Callejón and kept in hospital overnight as a precaution.

Keïta had hoped to travel with the Liverpool squad on their scheduled flight on Thursday morning. The 23-year-old is expected to have a further assessment on Friday to determine whether he will be fit enough to play against Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday.

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Awful Napoli performance cause for concern

For some reason the team looked a little bit flat against Napoli. The team rely a lot on their energy and for some reason they couldn’t get it going on the night.

It was a disappointing result. It looked like Liverpool 's mindset was to go there and get a point. That would have been fine with the games we’ve got coming up, but unfortunately we came unstuck at the end. 

It could be almost a cup-final against Napoli at home now, depending on how they do against PSG. We should certainly have enough to take six points from our next two games against Red Star.

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Klopp: Reds deserved to lose to Napoli

Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool deserved to get beat by Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday as they suffered their second defeat of the season when Lorenzo Insigne scored an injury-time goal for a 1-0 win at the Stadio San Paolo.

Napoli wasted a number of golden opportunities before Insigne's late intervention, while Liverpool failed to record a single shot on target in a Champions League game for the first time since 2006.

"No attempts on target, I don't remember when that happened last time," Klopp told a news conference. "I think we had a big part of that because we can play much better.

"We don't have a lot of set-pieces. No shot on target is not enough. They had a good game, we didn't -- that's what they deserved the three points."

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Woeful Reds fall to Napoli

The last Liverpool team to play in Napoli was managed by Roy Hodgson, led in attack by David Ngog and had Christian Poulsen supposedly pulling the strings in central midfield. Images of that line-up from 2010 had done the rounds on social media this week to underline how far Liverpool have travelled in the intervening eight years. All true, of course, but the present day Liverpool served up an inferior display to that drab goalless draw of yesteryear to suffer deserved defeat to Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

Lorenzo Insigne converted José Callejón’s low cross in the 90th minute to send the home crowd into raptures and condemn Jürgen Klopp’s visitors to the defeat they had appeared to have escaped when Dries Mertens hit the crossbar moments before. Liverpool were uncharacteristically subdued and error-strewn throughout. The positive start yielded by that dramatic victory over Paris Saint-Germain has been squandered.

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Klopp and Wijnaldum back Salah before Napoli tie

In the oppressive heat of the press room at the Stadio San Paolo, Jürgen Klopp made it very clear he would not join the debate over Mohamed Salah’s form. “Be relaxed, completely relaxed,” was his final piece of advice to the Liverpool striker, having straight-batted several questions on a subject he considers overblown. Gini Wijnaldum then replaced his manager in the press room. “I’ve told Mo he’s got to get more hat-tricks,” said the midfielder. “He’s had enough of scoring twos, he has to get threes.”

As manager, Klopp has to be more careful with public demands of a crucial player and there is certainly foundation to his argument that Salah’s start – so similar to that of last season – would not have attracted so much focus had Liverpool other things to worry about. As things stand they do not: sitting top of their Champions League group going into Wednesday’s game with Napoli, second in the Premier League only on goal difference as they prepare for Sunday’s showdown with Manchester City at Anfield and still unbeaten in the league thanks to Daniel Sturridge’s 89th-minute equaliser at Chelsea on Saturday.

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Alisson: tough decision to leave Roma for Reds

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson has told Gazzetta dello Sport he considered staying at Roma and cried when it was time to leave for the Premier League.

Alisson earned his move to Liverpool on the back of two seasons at Roma in which he finished second in Serie A in his first campaign and reached the Champions League semifinals in his second.

"Leaving Rome was difficult," he said. "I cried a lot, together with my wife. It's only right that I'm honest about it: I made a professional decision; a step forward in my career and for Roma, who earned a huge sum.

"I decided with my head to move to Liverpool, but my heart was full of tears. I spent two special years in Rome. My daughter was born there and I have a lot of friends there outside of football."

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Klopp set for Napoli return

The last time Jurgen Klopp visited Stadio San Paolo, Naples witnessed its biggest eruption since Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii.

It was September 2013 and the red mist descended amidst the white-hot atmosphere during Borussia Dortmund's Champions League clash with Napoli.

"Pathetic,” was Klopp's brutally honest assessment of his behaviour which resulted in a two-game European touchline ban.

The German coach had to watch most of the game on a TV in the stadium after being sent off inside half an hour for an angry outburst at the fourth official.

Teeth gritted, his eyes bulging – the footage of him ranting went around the globe. Klopp was furious that defender Neven Subotic wasn't allowed back onto the pitch sooner after an injury, allowing Gonzalo Higuain to open the scoring as Napoli went on to clinch a 2-1 win.

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Shaqiri gears up for Napoli

Although Xherdan Shaqiri’s ill-fated spell with Inter Milan lasted just six months, the now-Liverpool forward did take away at least one useful experience.

The Swiss played 90 minutes of a thrilling 2-2 draw with Wednesday evening’s opponents Napoli towards the end of his brief stay in Italy, getting a feel for the famous atmosphere generated by the Stadio San Paolo in the process.

And so, as members of Jurgen Klopp’s squad prepare to play their second Champions League group game at the same venue, they will be able to turn to their new teammate to get a feel for what lies in store.

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Napoli boss criticises his side ahead of clash with Reds

Carlo Ancelotti criticised his Napoli side after they warmed up for Wednesday's Champions League visit of Liverpool with a 3-1 defeat to title rivals Juventus in Serie A.

They took the lead through Dries Mertens but Mario Mandzukic nodded Juve level and then added another early in the second half.

Napoli's hopes were effectively dashed when Mario Rui was sent off for a second booking and Leonardo Bonucci completed the scoring.

“I was angry at my team because we started strong and took the lead, but then started getting sluggish and allowed Juventus to regain their confidence,” Ancelotti said.

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